Kylie Minogue

Brisbane Entertainment Centre 21.03.15

By the time Giorgio Moroder walked to his wheels of steel,  the dance floor at the foot of stage was packed. The video screens came alive and Moroder, as DJ, played a forty minute set of ‘hits’. Clips from the archives helped bring the music to life as he remixed beats and reinvigorated the likes of Donna Summer’s Love To Love You Baby, I Feel Love, Irene Cara’s Flashdance and Berlin’s Take My Breath Away. Saving, arguably, the best for last, Moroder closed his set with an uptempo remix of Blondie’s theme from American Gigolo, Call Me.

A hard act to follow under normal circumstances, tonight it was different: everyone was there for Kylie. On previous tours La Minogue has sold out multiple nights at the venue. Tonight, it’s one-show only on her Kiss Me Once tour and it’s three-quarters full. Betty Who opened proceedings, Moroder (the God-Father of Disco) set the scene, and now Minogue made her entrance. Few artists know how to enter a room better that Kylie. As the geometric shapes lit up like a 70’s disco, Minogue rose through the floor, laying back on what looked like fully pouted lips. Les Sex, In My Arms and Timebomb open the show. The early staging dipped the hat to everyone from Magritte to Dali and Studio 54.

Costume changes were de rigueur as Kylie leant on a few hits to get the room moving. Highlights included Step Back In Time, Spinning Around, Your Disco Needs You and On A Night Like This. Moroder returned to the stage for the new single Right Here, Right Now and stuck around to lead the band into a reprise of I Feel Love. The set closed with Slow.

How do you top that? After the first hour: the show started to lag a little. No one has stayed as friendly with the zeitgeist as Kylie Minogue. Tonight, it felt as if the magic was starting to slip. The audience didn’t seem as buoyant and Kylie, possibly due to her recent stint on TV, was prepared to break the fourth wall. A fan came on stage for a selfie, signs in the crowd led to a sing-a-long. A single red rose was passed from the stage to the back of the room. Tonight, for whatever reason, was lacking the heat you’d find at a Katie Perry/Taylor Swift show.

Can’t Get You Out Of My Head and Kids gave the latter part of the night a much needed kick. There was even a shimmering take on INXS’ Need You Tonight. The Loco-Motion was restored to its R&B roots. Somehow, with a thousand great nights behind her, this was a so-so Kylie show. That itself is a rare beast, but she will be back with a renewed swagger, because that’s what great artists do.

Words: Mitchell Peters